Book Review: James Benn’s popular Billy Boyle is back in ‘Blue Madonna’ mystery

Author
James Benn has again scored a direct hit with ‘Blue Madonna,’ his 11th
in a series of spellbinding Billy Boyle World War II mystery novels. In this latest
outing, as with every Benn novel, he delivers a rewarding mix of well-plotted
and fast-paced fiction, with just enough well-researched historic fact (and
interviews with combat vets) to make every twist and turn ring true. All the
characters are so well written and everything they do or say is sure to spark a
genuine emotional response from the reader.

All the
Billy Boyle books are engaging first-rate novels, but ‘Blue Madonna’ elevates
Benn to a new high in the skill and art of writing stories. This compelling mystery takes place mostly
behind enemy lines in France just before and during the invasion of Normandy on
June 6, 1944.

Billy
Boyle, a Boston cop before the war, has worked his way up to captain as an
effective and risk-taking detective in the army. It’s now late May 1944 and
he’s been court-martialed on questionable charges of black market dealings, knocked
down to private and sentenced to hard labor for three months. The army offers
Billy a deal to avoid jail if he will go behind highly patrolled enemy lines to
rescue a high-value Allied soldier hiding in a French Resistance ‘safe house.’
He holds the key to ending a shocking threat to the success of the D-Day
invasion.

The ‘safe house’ proves anything but safe, when a
Canadian and a second American have been murdered in the hidden rooms and
tunnels that lie beneath the house. Billy’s original tight deadline has now
become almost impossible because he’s under the gun to find the killer before getting
the high valued Allied soldier safely back to England.

For James Benn fans, Billy Boyle is once again
cleverly and entertaining - aided and abetted by his closest wartime cohorts:
Lt. Kaz, Diana Seaton, Big Mike and Colonel Sam Harding.

After the conquest of Normandy, there were many
fierce battles before the world got to celebrate VE Day. Will James Benn create
more cliff-hanging missions for Billy Boyle to accomplish? Hoping so is like
being in the army – his readers we’ll have to just hurry up and wait.

With ‘Blue
Madonna.,’ the Billy Boyle stories continue to earn praise from readers and
critics across the country, and from his peers. The popular New York Times
bestselling novelist Lee Child said, “Billy Boyle gets better and better. This
is a must-read series.”

This
latest addition in the series is highly recommended to all mystery fans and
WWII buffs by Don Church and Tony Schillaci, Critics On The Aisle.

For those
unfamiliar with the author and his work, James Benn’s first Billy Boyle was
named one of five top mysteries of 2006 by Book Sense and was a Dilys Award
nominee. “A Blind Goddess” was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award,
and “The Rest Is Silence” was a Barry Award nominee.

James Benn
and his wife, Deborah Mandel, live in Connecticut. They have two sons and seven
grandchildren.

To meet the author and purchase a
copy of his book for signing, you can find James Benn at RJ Julia Booksellers,
768 Boston Post Road, Madison, CT on Tuesday September 13 at 7:00 p.m.

If you can’t make it then, visit the
Savoy Bookshop and Café at 10 Canal St. in Westerly, Rhode Island on Tuesday,
September 20 at 6:00 p.m.

Jim’s last September signing will
take place at 7:00 p.m. on September 29 at the Essex Library,33 West Avenue in Essex,
Connecticut.

If you can't make it to an event, but would like a signed
copy of Blue Madonna, send $28.00 (tax & shipping included) to James R.
Benn, PO Box 148, Hadlyme CT 06439.

Book
review by Don Church and Tony Schillaci, Critics On The Aisle. Sept. 2, 2016